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WATER CONSERVATION PLAN 2008 <br />The City currently utilizes bill inserts, newsletters, advertisements, customer training <br />seminars, and youth education programs to educate and engage its customers regarding <br />water conservation and water resources management. Many of these specific activities <br />will be included in future water conservation programs; however, the City plans to <br />evaluate its overall educational program developing a focused public relations campaign <br />to develop more effective messaging, enhance promotion of ongoing rebate programs (to <br />increase the level of participation), and to promote new rebate and audit programs <br />available to residential and commercial customers. <br />The City will also evaluate additional K -12 educational efforts utilizing teacher training <br />programs such as Project Water Education for Teachers (WET) and target specific training <br />seminars for homeowners, business owners, and landscape and irrigation installation <br />contractors. <br />Incentives <br />Residential and Commercial Rebates <br />One of the best methods to create measurable water conservation is to offer customer <br />rebates for indoor appliances. Outdoor irrigation system rebates and sod replacement can <br />also be effective in saving water; however, outdoor irrigation effectiveness can be <br />influenced by variations in annual precipitation, existing irrigation system inefficiencies <br />and other circumstances beyond the control of the water provider. Nonetheless, outdoor <br />irrigation rebates can be of great benefit to the overall customer water use efficiency, <br />albeit somewhat difficult to measure when compared to indoor rebates. <br />The City currently has a rebate program that offsets the cost for residential customers to <br />purchase and install ultra low-flow toilets, high - efficiency dishwashers, and washing <br />machines. Analyses will be prepared to evaluate the efficacy of continuing these <br />programs and expanding the incentives to include commercial toilets and urinals, <br />commercial pre -rinse spray valves, and residential and commercial rain sensors and ET <br />controllers. Turf replacement incentives can also be evaluated in this Plan. <br />Technical Assistance <br />Residential Outdoor Irrigation Management and Audits <br />Outdoor summertime water use constitutes about 50 percent of the total water use in the <br />City. Many residential water customers rely upon irrigation systems to water their lawn <br />and shrubs on a pre -set schedule, based on a programmable logic controller. <br />Unfortunately, some of these customers set the timers and forget them which results in <br />watering at inappropriate times such as every day and night, during a rainstorm, or <br />during the day after 10 am and before 6 pm. To this point, the City will plan to evaluate <br />the cost /benefit of continuing to conduct individual residential outdoor irrigation audits <br />through the Center for ReSource Conservation (CRC), and provide additional education <br />to homeowners regarding low water -use landscapes, Xeriscaping, and overall soil and <br />plant management. The City plans to evaluate providing rebates for outdoor irrigation <br />equipment, specifically rainfall sensors and ET controllers. <br />43 <br />